A new system for mass producing disc drive motors is needed. The previous art utilized quick drying adhesives allowing motors to be assembled quickly and efficiently by hand. However, the advent of high performance disc drives, requiring submicron distances between the head and the disc face, created new challenges. The previously used quick drying adhesives had a tendency to outgas small quantities of organic constituents. These minute quantities of outgassed volatiles adhered to the surfaces of the disc drives, forming a submicron film which degraded performance and reliability, and also damaged the delicate submicron components of the disc drives.
These complications made the use of quick drying adhesives impractical. The inventors remedied this problem by switching to an adhesive which did not emit significant amounts of organic volitiles (hereinafter referred to as "non-outgassing adhesives"). However, non-outgassing adhesives created their own problems. The non-outgassing adhesives cure much more slowly than the prior quick dry adhesives. The prior adhesives cured almost immediately, allowing quick easy hand assembly of motor components. A longer cure time wastes many man-hours while the assemblers hold motors under the required tension during the adhesive cure process. In the face of this difficulty, hand assembly is impractical. However, the need for mass production of motor components and motors remains.
An object of the present invention is to provide a method for quick and efficient mass production of electric disc drive motors using non-outgassing epoxy adhesives. A further object of the invention encompasses the multi-position preload/cure fixtures used to accomplish the method of motor construction. There is no known prior art.